International security

Ukraine Should Have No Hopes of Russia Ever Giving Up Crimea

Crimea will stay as part of Russia for a long time to come, the negotiations for its "return" can never even begin and the re-integration of Donbass with Ukraine could be stalled for decades – these are predictions of Lauren Goodrich, a senior Eurasia analyst and Soviet Union specialist at Stratfor.

"I don’t think that anybody on the part of Russia, Europe or the US thinks that there will be any developments or even negotiations on Crimea," Lauren Goodrich said in an interview with the Ukrainian website Apostrophe.

"It appears that Crimea will stay in Russia’s hands for a long time. Russia won’t even negotiate this topic. For Moscow, it is not just an instrument to exert influence on Ukraine, it is almost a national issue for Russia," she added.

The analyst noted that any negotiations on the issue will discredit Russia’s national security and Moscow will not go down this path. The Russian people will not understand it, so the negotiations "can never even begin."